Willie hesitated and looked at Elizabeth uncertainly. Then with a bit of caution he continued, “Well… This is the part of the story that it actually took my Daddy many years to be able to tell. He sort of tried to give it to me in dribbles and drabs. Even when he decided he had to tell it all to me, he could barely get through it. He finally made up his mind and told the whole story to me one night start to finish just before he…well… just before he died.”
Elizabeth reached over and turned on the tape recorder. “Go ahead, Willie. Continue your tale.”
Willie braced himself and resumed his story. “Back at the mine there were about twenty workers or so digging and shoveling dirt and rock into mine cars on rails that were being continuously hauled up out of the mine by mules. Some of them were shoring up the roof of the mine with freshly hewn timbers. They hammered wooden wedges between the tops of the timbers and the mine roof to gain a secure fit. Much of the work was going on to bring the mine back into some type of working order. Fortunately, most of the damage happened at the bottom of the mine so the main gangway itself was still intact. It just needed shoring up for safety’s sake.
“This had long since stopped being a rescue operation and had changed to a recovery type of situation. Several weeks had passed and everyone knew that the remaining three miners had to be dead. Now all that remained to be done was to bring the mine back to working order and pull the remaining bodies out of the rubble for proper Christian burial…”
Chapter 18
Deep inside of the mine, two men were digging in a small tunnel at the deepest part of the main shaft. There was almost no light available, save the glow coming from their oil lanterns.
These two workers were Willie's father and his partner Frank. They had dug a small tunnel through a wall of fallen rubble. The tunnel was just big enough for two men to enter on their hands and knees digging carefully. The length of the tunnel was about ten feet deep, and four feet square when measured from the opened main mine shaft.
It was a dangerous and grueling process. Every foot or two along their way they had to stop and construct timbers to support the sidewalls and ceiling. Without such support, they were likely to end up having the mountain of rubble come down around them and bury them alive.
From deep inside their tunnel, they could not hear the miners back in the main shaft. Will had studied the maps of the mine and believed that the three miners might be trapped in an air pocket behind the mountain of rubble. At first, Bill Coogan did not want to support his recovery mission stating that for all they knew the bodies might actually be buried under the rubble, but eventually Coogan agreed to allow just a team of two, Will and Frank, to dig a tunnel through the rubble pile to try to locate the bodies.
Coogan believed it was a waste of time and energy, but since his mine was now back in operation and most of the boys were busy trying to get things back in shape, he thought this might be a good way to keep Will busy and out of his way for a while.
Down in the tunnel, Will asked his partner, “Frank. Do you think we will ever find them fellas? I mean, I know they got to be dead but they deserve better than to be left down here to be supper for the rats.”
Frank replied, “Yep, that is surely true, and we will find them if Coogan only gives us enough time. ‘Cause don't you be deceived into thinking that bastard Coogan cares a bit about those three in there. That's why he is only allowing the two of us to look for them bodies, while the rest of these boys are getting this mine back to normal. It’s been two long weeks, and I do believe that if we do not find something within the next week, he will pull us off this job as well.”
“I believe you are right.” Will replied, “I suspect he only agreed to this much of our time because I think he was afraid the men might strike. He ain't afraid of neither you nor me Frank, but he can't run a mine if no one shows up. I figure that by letting us do this he is keeping the boys happy and keeping us busy.”
“That is true,” Frank continued, “and to be honest, I really don’t care what his reasons are, just so we get a chance to find those boys. Now let’s just hope we can find their bodies soon so we can put this whole thing to bed.”
In the main tunnel, the workers were all going about their chores. Extra oil lamps were brought in to add more light to the mineshaft. Normally Coogan would not tolerate such an additional expense, but this was certainly not a normal situation. Moisture formed on the mine walls and on the workers’ clothing. Traditionally their only source of light was small oil lamps roughly sewn into the fronts of the various style caps they wore. But, with the additional oil lamps hanging about the mine they were able to see much better.
Frank was digging fiercely into the wall with his shovel. He was starting to get tired of this and was beginning to believe the entire exercise might be futile, when suddenly the tip of his shovel broke through into what seemed to be a hollow area behind it.
Frank backed away from the pitch-black opening as a fowl odor of decaying flesh and human excrement escaped from the hole. He dropped his head down as if to bury it and covered his nose and mouth. Will reacted likewise and did the same just a second or two later.
“Oh my God, Will, the smell!” Frank exclaimed. “I ain’t ever smelled anything like that in my life.”
Will spoke reluctantly, “Ugh, yes I smell it too. That is truly the smell of death. We've found them for sure. We'd best cover up. There's no telling what sicknesses might be brewing in there.”
The two men pulled their handkerchiefs from their pockets placing them over their mouths.
Frank continued, “And there probably ain't no more air left in there either. We best give it a few minutes for some of this mine air to get inside. Let's make this here hole a bit bigger to speed things along.”
Chapter 19
The two men began anxiously enlarging the hole to allow access to the chamber. The rest of the miners were oblivious to their discovery, their shouts of victory going unnoticed, as sound could not escape their small tunnel.
The two entered the chamber, stood up and looked around. They could see very little with the meager light from their hat-mounted oil lamps. Will held up a larger oil lantern providing better illumination. Oddly, the ceiling seemed to be much higher than they expected. They could see the skeleton of the old mine support beam five feet off the ground but it was obvious that the actual top of this chamber was much higher than that. Frank lifted his handkerchief to re-sample the air. “Hey Will. It is strange but there seems to be plenty of air in here. I don’t understand it but it is true. I wonder where the Hell the air is coming from.” They both cautiously removed their handkerchiefs.
Will and Frank could see what looked like two bodies. One body seemed to be floating in about a foot of water, anchored by a leg that had been buried under rubble. Frank exclaimed, “There they are, Will! That's them over there!”
“Yes I see them too,” Will agreed, “but… wait a second… look at them Frankie.. God in heaven, man what's wrong with them?”
The pair approached the bodies, shocked to see the shriveled, brown flesh stretched tightly across bones, teeth exposed behind shrunken lips. The corpses’ hair was white and had fallen out in places as their milky eyes bulged staring lifelessly into space.
Frank shouted, “Oh my sweet Lord Jesus! They ain't nothin’ but skin and bones. They look like they‘re a thousand years old. Like if we touch them they might turn to dust and disappear. And look at their faces! They look like they've seen something terrible. Look at their eyes bulging from their sockets. Oh my sweet mother of God!”
They looked at the bodies for the place where their stomachs should have been revealing an empty cavity with slight traces of wilted flesh clinging to the bottom of the rib cages, internal organs removed, maggots crawling among the fleshy remnants. The body floating in the water had bits of ripped and wilted flesh extending out floating on the top of the water like long sodden strips of bacon.
Will said in amazement, “And look at their
bellies. Their guts were ripped out like by some kind of animal and…. and .. what? Eaten? What kind of animal could do this? Especially down here in the mine. You don't think rats could do this so quickly, do you?”
Frank shook his head. “There ain't no rat I've ever seen that would do this. Maybe a pack of a hundred rats or more would do this. Maybe. And they wouldn't just eat the insides. They would eat the whole body and surely not miss the eyes. They like the eyes best. I have never seen anything like this in my life. Even if they were eaten by some kind of animal, how did they get all … shriveled…. like that?”
Will stared in shock. “I ain't got no idea at all… this is going to have to be one for people a lot smarter than us to figure out… ‘cause I don't understand it. I just can’t explain it.”
After a few moments Will realized, “Hey, now wait a minute here. There are only two of them. Where's the third one? There should be three of them.”
Frank replied, “I don't know. Maybe he's under the water over there,” pointing to a puddle, “or maybe he’s buried under that pile of rubble that we dug through. Or maybe he got eaten up completely. You don’t think these other two ate him do you? I heard stuff like that has happened before. Holy Hell, I just don't know what to think. …”
Frank stood confused for a moment then said, “I guess we best be seeing who we got here so we know which one of the three is missing.”
Will looked on uncomfortably and said, “How the Hell are we gonna be able to tell who is who anyway? They both look like we dug them up from the cemetery after they were fermenting for a hundred years.”
Frank held up his hand to signal for Will to wait. “Leave me think here for a minute. Wasn't Mikey Muldino a atholic? He always wore a cross on a chain around his neck - a crucifix with Jesus hanging on it. Check this one here and see if he got a cross.”
Will felt as if he might vomit, turn and run, or all three. “I ain't touching him. God only knows what's been crawling around inside of him… You do it if you think it's such a god damned good idea.”
Frank shook his head in disbelief and began to bend very slowly over toward the first body. “Alright, alright. Leave me see here.” Frank took the tip of his shovel and very slowly moved the shirt out of the way to look for the cross.
He did this slowly feeling his skin crawl as he worked. His shovel snagged on the shirt. He slightly lost his footing and dropped the shovel with a clang causing them both to jump.
Will shouted, “Jeeesus, Frank? What the Hell are you trying to do? Be more careful! I all but pissed myself.”
Frank replied, “Sorry, Will. This here one ain't got no cross. But he is wearing a dark undershirt, at least the remnants of one. Didn't Danny O’Boyle always wear a dark red union suit?”
Will tried to get back into focus saying, “No that wasn't Danny. That was Joe, Joe Sincavage. He was the one that always wore the dark red union suit as I recall.”
Frank replied, “Then I guess that means that this one here must be Joe. What about that one floating in the water? Do you think that one is Danny?”
Will disagreed, “No. That can't be Danny. Danny is… was... much bigger than that one. Danny was one Hell of a big Irishman. That one must be Mickey. He was one of them little I-talian lads. They don't grow them very big over there, you know.”
Frank waded into the water slowly and cautiously, as he did he saw dead maggots floating against his pants. He stopped for a second, holding back his urge to vomit, reluctantly continuing.
He took his shovel by the handle stretching it to guide the floating body toward him. When it got close enough, he shortened his grip on the handle using the tip of the shovel to open the shirt.
Off to Frank’s right, the water produced a huge splash, soaking them. Both Frank and Willie screamed out in surprise and fear.
Upon closer examination, they noticed that a few rocks and debris had worked their way out of the ceiling and fell splashing into the water below. This was evident by the small amounts of dirt still falling from the ceiling.
Frank looked around at Willie, shook the water from his face and expelled a deep sigh saying, “Whew! Let’s not have any more of that now.”
Will shook his head, sighing. “Amen to that one,” he said while making the sign of the cross.
Frank examined the floating body, seeing the crucifix around the neck of the corpse. ”Yep. There’s the cross. That means we have Mickey here for sure. … So where's Danny?”
The two walked around the chamber looking for the third body, unconsciously staying close together, back to back. As the shadows and light bounced around the area, Frank saw the opening of a huge round tunnel dug in the sidewall of the chamber.
Frank said curiously, “Hey Will, look over there. What the Hell is that? It looks like a tunnel.”
Chapter 20
“Our crew didn't never dig no tunnel in that wall, did we?” Frank asked. “And look at the damned size of it.”
Will turned and followed Frank’s gaze, squinting in the darkness. No, we certainly didn't or I would have known about it. We wouldn't have bothered with that wall, since the main vein of coal we was looking for was against that wall over there.” Will pointed to the back of the mine.
“That is where they were digging the last time I was down here, and that’s why we figured we would find those boys in that spot. You know what I think? I think this is why we are getting air in here. I believe it is coming from this tunnel. Maybe this tunnel leads to a cave or an air shaft to the surface or something.”
Frank looked over at Will. “So where the Hell did a tunnel that size come from? They both went closer to the opening and saw just how enormous it actually was. They look up at the dark opening seeing that it was about fifteen feet high and about ten feet wide, dwarfing the two.
Will asked, “What in the name of God could have made a tunnel this big. If we had twenty men on this we could never have dug it; and why so high? That in itself would be a safety hazard.”
Frank looked thoughtfully. “All right, leave me think about this one for a minute here. Maybe them two over there died right away, during the cave in. And then maybe when everything collapsed, this here tunnel opened up, like in an earthquake. Who knows, maybe that's what caused the cave-in in the first place. And maybe Danny was able to get out this way…. or at least get a bit further away.”
Will started to have a bit of hope, “You ain't thinking that Dan could still be alive are you?”
Frank replied, “No. I don't see how he could be. That is, unless this here tunnel leads to some kind of cave. And then if that cave would lead to some outside opening… I don't know. Maybe it is possible. But, we're a mile or more under the ground… I just don't see how it could ever be.”
“So now what?” Will inquired, “Maybe we should go back and get those other fellas to come in and help us get those two bodies out of here. What do you think?”
Frank was still deep in thought. “Wait a minute, Will. Let's go in here a bit and see. If Danny is still alive, he could be hurt inside this tunnel waiting for someone to come in and help him. We can go back and get the boys when we know more about what is going on.”
“But Frank. What would he have eaten and drank all this time? It's been well over two weeks.”
Frank replied unsure, “Hell. I don't know. Maybe stuff grows in caves like moss or insects or rats or God knows what, that he might be able to eat. And there's plenty of water leaking in here. If this tunnel does open to a cave then there is probably a source of air somewhere. And I hate to even mention it but you know maybe Danny was starving and out of his mind and maybe he ate those two back there.” Frank pointed his thumb back at dead corpses.
Frank and Will looked at each other speechless for a few seconds, their eyes wide with astonishment. Then they both simultaneously made the sign of the cross and slowly turned back to the cavernous opening.
Will took a deep breath, sighed and shook his head as if to remove the thought from his mind.
He looked over at Frank who was staring inquisitively at the tunnel. What he saw on Frank’s face made his legs weak. “Frank. You ain't really thinking about going in there are you?”
Frank nodded his head slowly without looking over at Will, and started to enter the tunnel, “Why not?” Frank said, “Our job is to find the three of them, and so far we only found two. And it looks like the third might just be in here.”
Before Will realized it, Frank disappeared into the passageway. Will looked down and noticed that Frank had left his oil lamp behind. Will held tightly to his own oil lamp and began entering the tunnel, following at a much slower pace. Will was not prone to irrational fear but there was something about the situation that didn’t sit well with him. Will looked closely at the walls of the tunnel, studying them with his oil lantern.
Looking along the sidewall Will noticed that the tunnel did not look as though it was formed naturally or though some type of accident or earthquake, but it looked as though it was actually dug by someone with very sharp narrow digging tools.
Frank was well into the tunnel, a good distance ahead of Will, completely gone from Will’s sight. Will became a bit anxious, calling weakly, “Frank? I can't see you. Are you still up there Frank?”
Then from up ahead in the darkness Will heard Frank’s comforting reply, “Yeah, Will. I'm just up here a little bit ahead of you. Come on now. If you moved a bit faster you would be right behind me.”
Then Frank called, “From what I can see, it looks to me like this tunnel does open up into some kind of large cave… yes, there it is. There's some kind of opening. I'm going to take a look and…aaaaaaaaaaa”
Chapter 21
Frank's voice cut off mid-sentence with a gagging scream. Will rushed blindly ahead in the darkness, assuming that Frank had fallen into the cave or something.
Will stumbled, tripped and fell on his face. His oil lamp rolled ahead in the tunnel on its side. Light appeared to strobe on and off as the lamp rolled. The oil lamp stopped abruptly against something just at the spot where the tunnel met the cave opening.
99 Souls Page 9
